The Step-Mother: Act the Third: Scene IV
SOSTRA. I'm glad to see you safe return'd--How doesYour wife!PAM. Nothing, good mother.
SOSTRA. What was all that bustle?Tell me, did pain attack her suddenly?
SOSTRA. And what is her complaint?
SOSTRA. What! a quotidian?
PAR. So they say.--But in,Good mother, and I'll follow.SOSTRA. Be it so. (Exit.
PAM. Do you run, Parmeno, to meet the servants,And give your help in bringing home the baggage.
PAR. As if they did not know the road!
PAM. Away! (Exit PARMENO.
Words in this poem
- quotidian a.
- Occurring or returning daily; as, a quotidian fever. [OE. cotidian, L. quotidianus, fr. quotidie daily; quotus how many + dies day: cf. OF. cotidien, F. quotidien. See Quota, Deity.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Step-Mother: Act the Third: Scene IV is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Comedies of Terence, Project Gutenberg ebook #22695; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Terence, The Step-Mother: Act the Third: Scene IV, in The Comedies of Terence (1765), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #22695, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/terence-comedies/the-step-mother-act-the-third-scene-iv.html, id L25865.
Form and metre
The Step-Mother: Act the Third: Scene IV is 14 lines in 8 stanzas. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic pentameter.
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| SOSTRA. I'm glad to see you safe return'd--How does | 12 | ········˘/·· |
| Your wife! | 2 | ·· |
| PAM. Nothing, good mother. | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| SOSTRA. What was all that bustle? | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Tell me, did pain attack her suddenly? | 10 | ····˘/·/˘˘ |
| SOSTRA. And what is her complaint? | 8 | ······˘/ |
| SOSTRA. What! a quotidian? | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| PAR. So they say.--But in, | 6 | ······ |
| Good mother, and I'll follow. | 7 | ·/˘··/˘ |
| SOSTRA. Be it so. (Exit. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| PAM. Do you run, Parmeno, to meet the servants, | 12 | ··········/˘ |
| And give your help in bringing home the baggage. | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| PAR. As if they did not know the road! | 9 | ········· |
| PAM. Away! (Exit PARMENO. | 8 | ·˘//˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.